Intern diary: My boss told me to call every bank I was vaguely interested in working for

I’m spending this summer interning at the wealth management division of a large US investment bank. This is the final installment of a weekly intern diary

The last week of my internship at one of the largest wealth management firms was a productive one. I was given new tasks and given so much career advice that one week out of the bank and I’m already feeling nostalgic for my time there.

My supervisor asked me to conduct stock research on Post Holdings, Inc. and he was pleased with my findings. The company went through a series of seven acquisitions in just three years and was financially deteriorating, but was considered undervalued by Wall Street analysts. This particular research was perfect for me since my concentration at school is value investing. This was a step up from my tasks throughout this internship - I had never really done stock research for this before because my supervisor didn’t know my level of knowledge about the financial markets or investing.

He also had me come to his office to talk about networking and my future. He said that his tactic on gaining prospective clients is to attend events that he believes competing wealth management firms would not go to. He then creates a list of everyone he met at the event and other people that attended in order to make calls and pitch our services.

He told me to do something similar when it comes to personal networking for jobs and internships. When he was my age, he called the HR department of every bank that he was interested in to ask about job opportunities until he was eventually offered a role. That inspired me to copy him and call companies where I would like to work. People seem generally more impressed with someone who puts themselves out there and are more personable.

Now that the internship has ended it will be nice to have the rest of summer to prepare for school. I do regret not being able to participate in the learning courses anymore. I was enjoying learning outside of the classroom during my free time at the firm. This internship has been the most helpful with my professional development and the most educational. I will use the lessons I’ve learned here throughout the rest of my career.